Symposium Latsis EPFL 2011 Mapping Ethics. New trends in Cartography
© 2011 EPFL
What are maps for? How should they look like? Whom do they serve? What do they defend?
These and other similar controversial topics will be brought into the spotlight in the next Latsis EPFL Symposium 2011, organised by the Choros Laboratory, one of our TraCE members, on the hot topic of Mapping Ethics. This symposium, which will be held in April 14-15th, will explore new trends in Cartography and Social Responsability, and will count with distinguished keynote speakers such as Bruno Latour, Carlo Ratti, Michel Lussault and Hervé Le Bras.
The goal of this symposium is to gather original and inspiring contributions that allow for open-minded public lectures with cartographic outsiders and lively debates with informed speakers through in-depth panel discussions. Matters of debate include: are the co-productive processes of map-making erasing individual responsibilities ? Are self-organized collections of geographic data still maps? What are the relationships between citizens and stakeholders through the cartographic medium? How do maps as hybrid iconic, semiotic and symbolic systems bear the clarification of values ? Such are some of the lively topics this symposium will deal with.
Being no longer restricted to a circle of specialists, cartographic production has ceased to be a monopoly to become a common good, but as a consequence of this appropriation by a larger public, there is no longer any implicit agreement about maps. Meanwhile, scientific and technological innovations are drastically modifying the boundaries between what is a map and what is not; between geographical data and cartographical language; between science, technology, art and communication. At the same time, there is a strong need for cartographic instruments in order to empower the identity of citizen-cartographers. Ordinary individuals are not only using and thinking about topographical territories but topological networks, too. Many of them are involved in multi-scale, complex
This threefold and simultaneous movement is no coincidence and invites a serious self-analysis. It appeals an innovative frame to think about ethics - as a fundamental component of reflexivity. In other words, what are the social values and responsible attitudes that are at stake in cartographic practices? The symposium will revolve on different aspects of this question.
This question is all the more complicated since the debate on ethics is far from being closed within societies. Actually, understanding how the articulation of maps and society tends to design new configurations is necessary to create scientific and technological innovation, as well as to contribute to general public debate. This implies breaking academic borders which have been, so far, much too thick.
Maps involve a series of choices that are not merely technical. These choices can have a critical impact on the way maps will be received and deciphered. maps can actually be seen as actors of public debates, political controversies, or geopolitical conflicts. Then there is the aesthetic challenge. A map is typically a combination of projections, perspectives, shapes, patterns and colors, which could also be the raw material for aesthetics-oriented image-making. Aesthetic choices can create biases (oversimplification, illegibility, subliminal messages…) that impede receivers to control the meanings of maps they have to read. Artists seize maps and tears codes and values. What about scientists ? As the exchanges at the Symposium will show, scientific mapping is also a matter of choices, and thus a matter for debate!
Eidolon, an open research network for cartography
Eidolon is an open research network, created in 2008 in Bergamo. It includes three research centres: the Chôros Laboratory (Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, EPFL), which is affiliated to TraCE, the Department of Geomatic Sciences (Laval University, Quebec) and the Diathesis Laboratory (University of Bergamo). Eidolon’s goal is to contribute to innovation in cartography either directly or by stimulating research. More specifically, Eidolon aims at establishing links between cartographic languages, main questionings in social sciences and major societal issues.
Since 2009, Eidolon organises a biennal event in cartography. The first one, Le sfide cartografiche, was held in Bergam. The second one, Moving Maps, takes place in 2011 in Lausanne.